Chapter Two: Equality

Alex

"Excuse me, do you know where Ms. Kwan's homeroom is?" I asked the first girl I saw. She was leaning against a locker, looking into a mirror. Craig had gotten a ride with Emma and her dad, but I'd decided to walk to school. They were nowhere in sight, so I was stuck asking this random girl for help.

"Do I know you?" she snapped, not even taking her eyes off of herself for a split second.

"I'm Alex. It's my first day at Degrassi," I explained.

"I don't care," she replied, snapping her mirror shut.

"Who are you tormenting now, Manny?" a voice asked from behind me. "Don't mind her, she hasn't had her coffee yet," the boy said, walking around me to get to Manny. "Sorry I'm late," he told her, handing her a coffee and giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Thanks babe. This is why I love you so much; you know exactly what I need." She kissed him again, this time letting her tongue slip through his lips. I looked away, instantly uncomfortable. I didn't even know why I was still standing there.

"Sorry," the boy said, looking back at me. "We get carried away sometimes. I'm Marco Del Rossi." He held his hand out and I shook it.

"Alex Jeremiah," I told him, smiling. At least someone was nice in the school. Besides the two people standing in front of me, I'd only met Emma. After only a day, Craig was glued to Emma's side, leaving me with no one. But I hoped that this Marco kid might want to be friends.

"He's my boyfriend," Manny said, grabbing onto his hand. "That means he's taken," she said slowly, as if she didn't think I'd understand her.

"I'm a lesbian," I replied in the same, slow voice. "That means I'm not interested." Marco laughed at that, earning a smack in the chest from his girlfriend.

"Good," she snapped, narrowing her eyes. She was very snappy. And annoying. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"That's great!" Marco suddenly shouted. I gave him a look that showed I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained. "I was hoping to recruit more people for the GSA. I am the founder and President," he grinned.

"I wanted to find out more about it. Emma told me a little bit. Maybe we could talk after school," I suggested. Before he could answer, Manny cut in.

"I don't know why you spend so much time with that club when you're not even gay," she complained.

"It's for gay and straight people Manny. That would be what the 's' stands for."

"I know," she stated smugly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Anyway, I formed it when I found out my brother was gay," Marco explained, ignoring Manny for a moment.

"That's cool," I said, leaning back against the locker next to Manny's.

"We need to go sweetie. Or we'll be late," Manny blurted out, placing her hand on Marco's arm. I looked at my watch; there were still fifteen minutes left before homeroom started.

"Okay, I'll see you around Alex," he said, starting to follow his girlfriend.

"What about the club?" I called after him.

"Right!" he yelled, spinning around and walking backwards. I could imagine Manny snapping at him later because all of his attention wasn't on her for two minutes. "There's a meeting today at three. Be there!"

"Don't worry, I will." I waved and watched him turn back around, putting an arm around Manny's waist.

For a split second, I wished I wasn't gay so I could steal him away from her. Then I changed my mind. Nothing would ever happen with her either. She was pretty, but a little too snappy for my liking.

My first class was Media Immersions—definitely unlike any class I had in LA. I sat next to a boy with brown hair, fashioned into a slightly poor attempt at a faux hawk. He cracked jokes to the people around him. I didn't think he knew I was there, but he suddenly spun his chair around so he was facing me.

"You're new right? I'm Spinner," he told me. Then he just stared at me, so I assumed he was waiting for something.

"I'm Alex," I answered, twisting my chair a little.

"I met your brother already in homeroom."

"I'm sorry." That got me a laugh.

"Don't be. He's…"

"Strange?" I asked. "I know, I live with him."

"I was going to say nice. But I guess 'strange' works."

"He's already got a new best friend. Or potential girlfriend, lap dog, whatever," I said. "That girl Emma," I added.

"He must like to party then," Spinner replied, grinning.

I was just about to ask him what he meant when Mr. Simpson walked in. He walked over to his computer and plopped down in his chair, immediately starting attendance.

I zoned out a little until I heard the name 'Gavin Del Rossi.' I popped my head up and looked around, realizing that Spinner was the one who'd said 'here.'

"You're Marco's brother?" I asked him. He nodded and started drumming his fingers on the desktop in front of him.

"But, I'm also Spinner. I'm a person, and the fact that I'm Marco's brother has nothing to do with who I am."

"I realize that," I said. "It's just that you don't look anything like him," I said.

"It would be a little weird if I did, since I'm adopted."

"Oh." I felt so dumb. Luckily, I was saved by Mr. Simpson calling out my name. "Here!" I replied, gladly distracted from the awkward moment. I played around with the computer for a few minutes, ignoring Spinner. Suddenly, an IM popped up on my screen.

GavinDR: You don't have to be embarrassed. It doesn't bother me at all.

I instantly started to blush, but decided to type something back.

AlexJ: Sorry

GavinDR: Don't be. Just don't ignore me again for a stupid reason like that. I like you Alex, you're cool.

AlexJ: I like you too, GAVIN. If that's even your real name.

GavinDR: It is, but my friends call me Spinner.

AlexJ: That's definitely original.

I felt a hand clap down on my shoulder and jumped. I turned around to see Mr. Simpson standing over me, arms crossed over his chest, frowning. I grinned and tried not to blush as I noticed that everyone in the class was staring.

"It won't happen again Sir," I said, saluting him.

When I walked into the cafeteria, I looked around for anyone I knew. I didn't feel like making it obvious that I was new and didn't have any friends. Correction, I had three friends if Emma, Marco, and Spinner counted, but I'd really only talked to them for a few minutes.

To my left I saw Marco and Spinner at a table. They motioned for me to sit with them, but just as I was starting over, I heard someone else call my name. I looked over to my right and saw Craig and Emma, waving for me to join them. I stood there for a moment before I made my decision.

I walked to the left to sit with Marco and Spinner. My brother would get over it; he saw me every day. Besides, he probably wanted to be alone with Emma anyway.

"Hey guys," I said, plopping into a chair across from Marco. "Where's Manny?" I asked him.

"She's not in this lunch period," he replied.

"Thank God," I said. Spinner laughed but Marco glared at him.

"Manny means well, she just doesn't open up to people," he explained.

"Yeah unless they're screwing her," Spinner added. Marco smacked him on his shoulder, and Spinner smacked him right back. They went on for a minute, hitting each other harder each time until I cleared my throat.

"My brother and I haven't done that since we were two," I said, raising my eyebrows at them.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, nobody's perfect," Marco said. "Especially not Spinner's ex."

"Hey! Don't go there," his brother replied.

"So, what is there to do for fun around here?" I asked them. "Besides going to The Dot," I added. "Been there, done that."

"Well, you could always party down at the ravine with Emma and her friends. Of course, you would go home with an STD. But don't worry, most of them are curable," Marco joked.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Spinner answered for him. "Well, Emma doesn't have one. Yet."

"There's always the movie theater," Marco suggested, changing the subject. "Paige works there."

"Who's Paige?"

"Just this girl," he told me. "She was friends with Manny for about a week a few years ago, but now she's kind of a loner."

"Don't worry, she's nothing like Manny," Spinner assured me. "Except for the fact that they're both hot. I swear, if I liked girls, Paige would be the first on my list to…"

"Okay, enough details," Marco complained.

"I may want to hear those details," I said. "If she's as hot as you say she is…"

I walked into the room Marco told me the meeting was in and looked around. I spotted Spinner and Marco right away, sitting next to each other. Chairs were formed in a circle, and a few other people were there. I grabbed a chair next to Spinner.

"When's this thing start?" I asked. I heard giggling and saw a bunch of girls coming into the room in one huge group.

"In a few minutes," he told me. He looked pretty disappointed.

"What's with them?" I pointed at the girls, who'd taken the seats across from us. They were whispering a lot.

"Most of the straight girls who come, aka them, only come to see Marco. They think he's some kind of god and they know Manny won't be at the meeting," he explained. "The only problem is, not many gay guys come. So I don't get anything fun to look at," he pouted.

"What about him?" I pointed at a boy sitting to my far left, who was looking out the window next to him.

"Nah. That's Sean, this girl Ashley's boyfriend," he said.

"We'll have to get some serious recruitment campaigns," I told him. "I was the President of the GSA at my old school, and we had tons of people who were actually interested in the message we were trying to send."

"That would be great. Besides us, and maybe Sean, the only person who cares about sending out a positive message is Peter. He's straight, but he'll get revenge on anyone who says something bad about or hurts a gay kid, nonviolently of course."

"Well, where's he?"

"He got the shit beat out of him actually. But he'll be back."

"Okay, so we need more equality troops too, got it," I said.

"Let's start the meeting now," Marco announced.

A few people trickled in at the last few moments. The discussion for the day was changing the club's name. Some girl thought it should be changed to the GLBTSA.

"I'm just saying that everyone should be included. With a name like Gay Straight Alliance, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals aren't included and may feel left out," she explained.

"I don't really agree. I'm a lesbian, and I consider myself gay," I spoke up.

"But you're not the only lesbian in the club," Sean said from the corner. "And you can't speak for bisexuals or transsexuals," he added.

"Well then you're leaving out people who are confused or questioning their sexuality," I pointed out. I know I don't speak for everyone, but I'm not just a lesbian. I'm a person, and I don't think sexuality should define who I am, and it doesn't really need to define the name of our club. We could just be the Equality Club or something like that to show that everyone in the school is included."

"That's a great idea Alex," Marco said. The group of girls across from us all nodded, and I rolled my eyes.

"It works for me," Sean said, shrugging and looking back out the window.

"How about we take a vote," Spinner suggested.

Almost everyone voted for 'Equality Club.' The only person who didn't was the girl who brought up the name change in the first place. It didn't really matter because majority ruled and the name was changed. I felt like I had accomplished a lot on my first day of school.

As we walked out of the room when the meeting was over, Spinner nudged me.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a lesbian?" he asked.

"Would it have changed the way you think about me?"

"No."

"Then it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Well, the only thing is, we can't talk about hot guys," he said, shaking his head. I shoved him lightly and laughed.

"But Marco and I can talk about girls," I said, tilting my head in his direction. "So tell me Marco, who should I meet?"

A/N: I was hoping for more reviews, but I won't punish the people who actually took a second of their time to leave me something nice. You all know who you are, thanks!

Just to clarify, everyone I mention is supposed to be in the same grade, unless I say so otherwise. They're all sophomores (grade ten). So some people are fifteen and some are sixteen, I'll mention that if I find it important. As you can tell, Manny is supposed to be the "queen bee," taking Paige's spot. I love her on the show, but someone's got to be the bitch so it's her. She and Marco are the so-called "it couple" of the school. And no, he's obviously not gay. But Spinner is!

RachaelFOSHO, urbanluver, Grifter, and bee3: Thank you for your reviews! They were much appreciated.

Thanks for reading and please review! XD